Corporate-startup collaboration: effects on large firms' business transformation

What is it about?

Corporations’ emphasis on startup collaboration for corporate innovation has reached a new level in the context of digital transformation. The purpose of this paper is to examine three different models of corporate-startup collaboration and the models’ effects on the case companies’ capabilities for, and actual outcome in regards to their business transformations. The theory and case studies on corporate-startup collaboration models are based on a several years’ empirical study on 30+ multi-national corporations in the Western world. Further, iterative literature reviews on digital and business transformation have been conducted, leading to the identification of two different, but complementing frameworks used to analyze each case’s capabilities and outcome in regards to business transformation. Collaboration with startups was found to positively affect the firms’ business transformation. Further, the analytical process is a valuable path to better understand, and even improve, the cases’ capability for, and outcome in regards to their business transformations. The paper’s main theoretical, and practical contributions are further knowledge on organizations and organizational practices for corporate-startup collaboration, as well as a process for analyzing each case’s effect on the respective firm’s capabilities for, and actual outcome in regards to business transformation.

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